Got Power?

So I have been holding out on you all a little. Since Father's day I have done several posts on how busy we have been and given you the details of our time spent but I was leaving out one little factor. For Fathers day Kevin got a pretty big gift... a 2004 ford explorer 4.6 liter SOHC motor for the Thunderbird.  With that said during all this busy time a good bit of that was interlaced with Kevin spending a good amount of time in the garage working on the Thunderbird. So all of you non car lovers out there bear with me as I tell this story...

 

All of the above pictures were the calm before the storm. This was day 1 of the great take down. Kevin had ambitions to get the exhaust off and transmission out and quickly hit road bump number one.  Before we left Anderson Kevin had high flow cats put on the exhaust and quickly realized that they welded the exhaust hangers to the frame of the car among other things making it very difficult to remove.  As the pictures show the end result of day 1 was exhaust hanging off the back of the car and one frustrated McMahan...that was it.

Luckily day 2 went a little more smoothly; exhaust made it off and the transmission out and the husband was much happier :-).

I don't know about you but I am not really sure what I am looking at in the above pictures.  I do know that they are the end results of day 3 aka the removal of all the accessory parts to make ready for the removal of the engine. 

And day 4 ended in great success - old engine out!

Day 5: part retrieval - taking what was needed off the old motor and putting them on the new motor. 

Day 6: prepared new engine for install of springs and cams when they arrive.

Day 7: installation of new springs and cams, now all that the engine needs is exhaust manifolds and it can go in...

Day 8: finally the new engine is in, now everything else has to go back on. Count down to start up time. 

Day 9: FINALLY all back together... and time to crank her up...

After all that hard work, a few bumps and bruises, cuts and scrapes... after a few sputters and chugs, she is running good.  Kevin is now just ready to get her to a dyno and track.  I am sure you will be hearing more about the Thunderbird and our excursions in the near future.  

Fair fight?

We have been continuing our search of things to do to keep cool in this wonderful heat wave we are experiencing up here.  Kevin and Chase took the battle to the streets on Sunday afternoon....

Chase with his automatic water gun had a slight advantage over Kevin in this war.  Hope everyone is keeping cool and does not have any "causalities" of this heat wave.

New favorite place

Welcome to the Farmington Farmers market. I know farmers markets are not a new thing. There is even a farmers market in Anderson, SC. Chances are there is a farmers market near you.  The new thing is that this is the first time I have visited a farmers market and it is now one of my new favorite places!  One of my favorite aspects of my new diet has been all the yummy veggies (and the pounds that seem to melt away as I eat all these veggies).  Prior to now I was notorious for buying fresh produce and then finding it rotten in my fridge a couple of weeks later.  Now it enters the fridge and leaves happily within the week to our dinner/lunch plates.  With my new found love for veggies I figured it was time to check out the local produce and I was not disappointed.  Chance are this will be my weekly produce stop on Saturday mornings.  Happy eating everyone!

Michigan... Really?

We really thought that one of the benefits of moving to Michigan was getting away from temperatures like above.  Guess we were wrong. I do have to say the weather has been a little wacky since we have been here. So what do you do when the weather is this hot....

  You eat ice cream out of the carton of course.

And you make someone else do the work for you.  We have also had tons of fun with sprinklers and water guns.  I hope all of you out there are finding ways to stay cool in this hot weather we are experiencing. 

Peace?

What do you give or allow your child to do just so you can get some things done around the house or get a moment of sanity for yourself?  

Leah snacking on pretzels - would have never given Chase pretzels at her age. Just needed to get the dishes done!

Destroying the diaper bag and its contents

 

Curious George anyone?

Founders day festival

We have really been enjoying the summer months up here in Michigan.  It still has been getting pretty hot and humid, not much different than what we were used to but every few days we seem to get a break with a beautiful 70 degree day.  There is also so much to do around here. This weekend was the Farmington Founders day festival.  Since Chase has a new found love for parades we headed out Saturday morning to catch the parade. 

Since Farmington is only a few miles down the road from us, I thought it would be a good idea to load the kids in the stroller from the house and walk. Luckily for me Kevin had the foresight to drive a little further before we started a walk because it was HOT. 

The parade had the usual suspects. 

And some unusual ones...

The kids really enjoyed watching the parade.

This was the LONGEST parade I think I have ever been to. So with a little left to go in the parade we decided to bail and check out all the tents set up at the festival.  With the kids we strolled though pretty fast with a brief stop at the farmers market (YUMMY).  We found a BBQ tent for lunch and some shade to sit under to enjoy it and then started our stroll back to the car.  It was a fun morning and we will be looking forward to more festivals in our future. 

Enough is enough

For me I have to reach a place in life where I say "enough is enough" before I make a change.  Leah is now 10 months old and Chase will be 3 in September so I can no longer blame my kids for the extra weight that I am carrying around.  I am tired of the way it makes me look and the way that I feel, so I am saying enough is enough! 

So I could just say "enough is enough" and continue to eat and feel guilty but not this time.  About 4 weeks ago I started getting out and hitting the pavement.  Kevin has been getting up and running for awhile now so I figured it was time for me to join in.  I started with 1.5 miles and walked a good bit of it. My body hurt to the extent that I had trouble walking up the stairs and picking up my kids.  Since I am at the "enough" point, I was not about to give in to the pain.  I pushed though and I am now up to running 4 miles with no walking.  To get me motivated a friend of mine invited me to join her in running a race called the Warrior Dash.  http://warriordash.com/register2011_michigan.php  Please pray for me because I do think I am crazy for agreeing to do this race but I think it will be a thrilling experience. 

Exercising is a great start in getting healthy but sadly the older I get the more I realize that pounds just don't fall off on their own.  I have come to the realization that without a change in my diet I will never lose the weight that I want to lose.   I cook 7 days a week, most weeks and nothing is going to change that fact. So I figure I need to learn how to cook in ways that not only will help me lose weight but will be overall healthier for my family.  As a guide I am following the 17 day diet  http://www.the17daydiet.com/.  I am not a diet person, I don't agree with diets.  I feel like there has to be a lifestyle change and this really seems to have everything I feel should be changed if you want to lose weight and keep it off.  Don't get me wrong, I still love ice cream, fried foods, and deliciously easy casseroles but these foods will no longer be an everyday part of my life. They will become special treats from time to time.  So here is to a new life!  Is there something in your life where you are ready to say "enough is enough"?

Leah is 10 months

 My sweet little angel turned 10 months old last Tuesday.  We cannot believe how fast the last 10 months have gone by.  Leah is so full of life and joy. We are so grateful that we have been blessed with her in our lives.  Much like her brother was at her age, she is full of energy.

Right at 10 months she started letting go of things and stepping out on her own. I have even caught her standing up on her own and taking a couple of steps.  She prefers to walk over crawling or being held but for consistent walking she has to hold your hand.  I really can't get over how fast she is growing and learning new things.

First Visitors

Last Friday we were blessed to have our first visitors to our new home. Our friends Kate and Steve and their Kids Joey (3) and Savannah (18 months) have family in Illinois. Since they were up this way they took a little (yea right, 7 hours out of their way) detour to come and visit us! It was no small feat on their part to come and see us and we were so excited that they made the extra effort! They arrived Friday around dinner time so after we ate we decided to get the kids out of the house so they could get out some of that built up energy.

Both boys insisted on riding back on the stroller

 On Saturday Steve had to fly back to Anderson to get back to work so while Kevin took him to the airport the kids played in the sand and played hide and seek.

The hide and seek was fun with such a good hiding spot until the boys had the BRILLIANT idea to pee in their hiding place. I guess they are not like dogs and will pee in their crates :). It is amazing the ideas they come up with together.

It was fun for Chase to have his friend Joey around, they played well together. It was also nice having the extra hands around to help, thanks Kate! Saturday after naps we decided to take the kids on a boating adventure. We headed to Cass Lake for some fun in the sun.

It is really great with kids to have a spot in the lake to stop and anchor where the kids can stand and play in the water. They really had a good time splashing, swimming, and floating on rafts. It was hard to get them back in the boat to eat and head home. 

On Monday night Kevin, AKA super dad, kept all 4 kids and sent Kate and I out to Ruth's Chris for a girls night out.

It was incredible to be able to have a conversation without interruption of breaking up fights, discipline, potty needs, or the constant "mommy, mommy." Not to mention the food was incredible!!! 

Tuesday night we decided to check out Chuck E. Cheese's with the kids.  Earlier that day we had passed a Chuck E. Cheese's and Joey (who has never been to one) spotted it and asked if we could go.  Good thing we had already planned the outing. 

The kids, errrr, adults enjoyed some game playing

Overall we weren't terribly impressed with the place but the kids had a wonderful time and Chase has asked every day since if we can go back.  Thank you Kate, Steve, Joey, and Savannah for taking time out to spend with us. We had so much fun!!!